Given our focus on Arkansas duck hunting, the crew at Greenhead.net has decided to start a new series of blog posts where our staff reviews products made by Arkansans that may be helpful to our audience this season. Some of these products you have likely heard of, some others maybe not but there is some high quality, innovative gear being produced in the state and we hope to help get the word out the duck hunting community.

Our first product review is the new line of duck calls from Refuge Calls of Fisher, Arkansas. The brand launched in Spring of 2011 but the men behind Refuge Calls are no strangers to the duck hunting game. Robb Watts owns an impressive contest calling resume including ten appearances in the World Duck Calling Championship with a second runner up and five top 5 finishes. Robb is an outdoor videographer and is co-producer of Drake Waterfowl’s Migration Nation television show. Adam Lyerly also has a competitive calling background and has run Bayou DeView Outfitters in Northeast Arkansas for the past 15 years. Adam also builds custom pit blinds under the name of Bayou DeView Blinds.

We took the Refuge Nvictus call for a test drive and came away very impressed. This particular Refuge version is geared towards the advanced caller that needs that mid-high volume call with the capability to make the softer finishing quacks and chuckles. The Nvictus fits the “meat call” genre and we came away pleased with its response to everything we threw at it. Would easily work in the timber or for the field hunter as it can reach out there pretty decent out of the box without any modifications. The call takes some skill to maneuver but definitely gave consistent, high quality performance with hunting scenario routines.

Less experienced callers don’t need to worry, odds are Refuge has a call for you. According to Robb, “Our three different hunting calls have a different sound for each call. We may not be master call makers but we are able to blow a duck call very well and came up with calls for every type of hunter.”

The “Acorn Shaker” and the “Hybrid” come in single and double reed models. Refuge also produces a competition call titled “The Bus Ticket”. The Refuge Call design is consistent across all models and comes in wide range of color schemes.

Look for big things in the coming months from Refuge Calls as the boys are filming episodes this season for an upcoming TV show to air next Fall.

For more on Refuge Calls and to see their full product line, find them online at www.refugecalls.com and follow their adventures this season on their Refuge Calls Facebook page.